Fake Golf Clubs – Don’t Buy From These Sites!!

Ping G10 Driver I bought from an online golf “wholesaler” a few years back

You may have heard that there are tons of fake golf equipment in circulation. If you did not buy your club or clubs from a reputable or authorized dealer, there is very well a chance that you are playing with fake clubs. Remember that great deal when you bought that $300 driver for $100 on eBay? Are you sure it came out of the original manufacturer’s production line? It is not just clubs that are being counterfeited, but balls, shafts, bags, and even gloves.

The circulation of fake / counterfeit / clone / imitation golf equipment has gotten out of hand and it is killing the industry. Not only that, but if you are a bargain-hunter like me, buying fake golf clubs will kill your game. The quality of the imitations is sub-par at best. It counteracts today’s game-improvement technologies that the major brands like TaylorMade and Callaway are spending millions of dollars on researching and testing, and are offering in almost all of their (non-tour) equipment. The copies are made from inferior materials, are inconsistent in structure, and the shafts will twist and turn all over the place, making it near-impossible to have any predictable outcome in your shots.

The manufacture of imitation big brand name golf clubs like TaylorMade, Callaway, Ping, Titleist, Nike and Cobra is running rampant in China. There are several “factories” with large numbers of employees turning out big volumes of cheaply made copies of the popular brands and model golf clubs. When 60 Minutes investigated the counterfeit golf markets in China, they found a factory in Donguan producing 500 counterfeit callaway golf bags a week. Copy equipment is making itsway to US and European consumers not only in stores set up in Asian countries where regulation of fake consumer products is non-existent, but via the web on auction sites like eBay and GolfBidder.co.uk, as well as sites dedicated to selling fakes only. Most of the latest knock-off clubs are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, even for people with experience with fakes.

Although there has been a recent awareness of these fakes flooding the markets, thousands of uninformed people are still buying these clubs at abnormally cheap prices. There are many US “entrepreneurs” who are buying these in bulk (many of the fake sites present themselves as “wholesalers”) and then selling them to unsuspecting consumers on channels such as eBay, CraigsList, or even their own US-based sites.

The golf equipment giants are all fighting a battle to eliminate the sales and manufacture of fakes. A recent article in Golf Magazine brought light to this epidemic. Police raided shops and factories who were making and selling the fakes in Asia. But for every store closed down by the police, there is a new web site springing up to sell more fakes.

The purpose of this page is to help in the fight against fakes and to bring a better awareness about the counterfeit equipment and their peddlers. I am hoping we find support among others who want to keep the markets clean of fake junk. Besides avoiding sites like the ones listed below, it is also a good idea to learn what to look for when trying to spot fakes on eBay and other channels. An article on Golfspy.com called 10 Ways Not To Buy Fake Clubs Online offers a good introduction to distinguishing fakes from the real thing, but since the manufacturers of the counterfeit clubs are getting better at making their clubs look exactly like the genuine article, we suggest that you look at some other tips and tricks as well. Exposing the Secrets of Fake Clubs has some good pictures of fake club heads and shafts that have been cut to show how they differ from authentic items.

Below follows a list of known online fake-mongers. If you know of any other sites that should be added to this list, please post it as a comment and we will investigate to ensure that they sell fakes before we add them to the list.

Update: As you will see, many of the sites below have been shut down by the authorities and some of them have civil lawsuits pending against them. Our work here is paying off! Keep reporting suspected fake sites to us.

7 comments. Would you like to comment?

Well, the question really is, do people care they are getting a fake.
Most recreational golfers want the prestige of playing with the latest greatest name brand club so their fellow golfers will ooh and aah but they don’t want to pay $1000 for them. I would also argue that most recreational golfers would not notice a difference in their game using the fakes and the real ones. If the manufactures would have a more realistic price point (seems that number is about $400) on their clubs than the counterfeiters would not be in business. However that is not going to happen as they have to justify all the “R&D” and really “marketing” of these clubs trying to convince us that their clubs will make up for a bad golf swing. For most of us our money would be better spent on lessons and a good set of clones (not counterfeit) but then the ohs and ahs would not be heard. I do not condone this practice of counterfeiting but I do understand why it is such a big market.

I hear you. I agree that new brand name clubs are outrageously expensive. The problem is that your theory only applies to hackers and beginners, and only the ones who care what their peers think what they have in the bag. When it comes to guys like me who are trying to break 90 and working hard at it, having counterfeit clubs flood the market is no good. Because no matter how hard I work at establishing a fairly consistent swing, these fakes will always counter my efforts. The club heads may not affect the outcome of the shot much, but the shafts on these fakes are so inferior that a consistent swing will result in the same outcome only a fraction of the time.

The price and strength of the modern technology in today’s clubs come to a large extent from the shafts. You will notice that more and more of today’s drivers come standard with shafts that were previously only available as custom options. Compare for instance the Aldila Voodoo, which is a $200 shaft but comes standard on the Titleist 909 D3 driver. These shafts add to the performance and forgiveness that we–as recreational golfers–have come to expect in the new equipment we buy. Replace that $200 Aldila with a piece of PVC worth 25c, and there is no predicting where your ball will end up. So, even though you may now have a (fake) $400 driver in your bag to impress your friends, you will be an even bigger laughing-stock when you fail to put a ball in the fairway with it.

The other problem is that once the hacker realizes that the $400 driver that he bought for $150 to impress his friends with has done more damage to his game than good, he puts it on eBay where bargain-hunters like myself may buy it as a used club. So it affects me too. So we end up in a vicious cycle where it is harder to find authentic clubs at bargain prices. Which means the only way to be safe is to buy that $400 driver for $400 at your local Dick’s Sporting Goods. If we can work together to eradicate (or even limit the volume of) the fakes, maybe we will be able to buy bargain used or even new clubs on eBay without having to worry about it being fake.

Good work putting this website up. I had an experience buying a set of Callaway’s from GolfSale365.com. I won’t bore you with the details but I eventually bought a bunch of related domains (EG GolfSale365.info) and bribed them to refund me in full – but I am probably one of the few people to get their money back!

hi guys. i was looking at this website http://www.mygolfwholesale.com/ to buy ap2 710 irons. i sent them a email yesterday with some questions. they replied, they come from a OEM source. they have serial numbers, they guarantee they are from the titleist factory. the shipping company is DHL and they do refunds as well. it all seems pretty legitimate to me. has anyone used this site before? thanks

Dear,
Many thanks for your email ! I will answer your question one by one. Ok?
Just now we have Titleist AP2 2010 irons in stock , and the setup of this irons is 3-9P.
We can guarantee these clubs are %100 real and come from the titleist factory. We have 7 days return policy and 1 year quality warranty, about the detailed info, you may see it on our site.
All our clubs are brand new!!!
And they do come with serial numbers so no worries.
Every day we send over 100 clubs to UK, I can promise they are very safe!
If you can not receive our clubs , we will give you a full refund, but till now, we never missend any clubs to our customer.
When we send you clubs out, we will email the tracking# to you at the same time , and you can us this tracking# to track your order at anytime.Generally we will arrange the delivery within 2 days since the payment, and then it will take 5-7 working day for the clubs to arrive at your address.
Dear, If you have any question , just feel free to contact us.
Looking forward your order.

2010/8/13 Ryan Wilson

hi there. i am considering buying a set of ap2 2010 irons 3-pw with s300 shafts.

firstly can you guarantee these are 100% genuine and come from the titliest factory?

are they still in plastic wrappers?

do they have serial numbers on?

is it safe to send to the UK?

will i get a refund if i do not receive them?

will i get a tracking number?

sorry to question you like this but its a lot of money to part with, especially ordering them from the US and not knowing of any feedback received from the UK.

http://www.golfclubsseller.com all major brands. Bought two apparently fake Ping fairway woods, and contacted PING that verified that these where in fact fakes. Website customer service says they are OEM Ping seller, however, PING says they don’t use the time “OEM” for their authorized distributor. Needless to say the websites customer service won’t even provide an address to return the clubs.